The Things You do for Family
by Ablivion
Summary: Another late/early Halloween story. Roman, who is terrified of going into Halloween mazes, and who has vowed never to set foot in one again, allows his daughter, Rachel to enter one with Dean and Seth. When she suddenly needs help inside the maze, it's Roman to the rescue. How will Roman conquer his fear, and will he be to reach his daughter in time? Halloween one-shot.


**A/N: Here is my other Halloween story. I saw a lot of maze stories up during Halloween time, but they were mostly about one of The Shield members pranking another in the maze. I wanted to keep the maze idea, but do something different with it. Hope you all enjoy :)**

* * *

Ever since the time when he was a teenager and he'd gotten trapped in a giant hedge maze for hours during a Halloween carnival, only finally able to escape by tackling his way through the hedge walls to freedom, Roman had hated mazes. From that day on, Roman had sworn he'd never enter one again, not even one as poorly made as the city fair maze that they stood before now. Unfortunately for Roman, now that his daughter was old enough to know what her daddy did for a living–fighting the bad guys, as he put it–she had decided to take head on, every big, bad, scary thing that she came across. Tonight, that meant entering a "haunted" maze for the first time at the urgings of her "uncle," a place that Roman was trying desperately to talk her out of going into.

"Come on, I wanna check it out too," Dean said, his whiny tone matching that of Roman's daughter's.

"Fine, but Rachel stays out here," Roman said.

"No Daddy, I want to go with Uncle Dean. Please let me go," she pleaded, pinning the big Samoan with her best puppy dog eyes. Dean rested his chin against her shoulder to do the same.

"Since when do you like scary mazes baby girl?" Roman asked, ignoring Dean.

"Since Uncle Dean and Uncle Seth said we'd fight the monsters together," she replied happily, her chest puffing out bravely.

"I don't know princess, I think you might still be too little to go in there." As soon as the words left his mouth, Roman knew he'd made a mistake.

"I'm not too little! I'll prove it," she said, then turned and stormed off before he could tell her that he'd simply meant that she was too young to go into a place like _that_.

_She gets more and more like her mother every day_, Roman thought to himself in exasperation as he found himself chasing after a seven year old in a princess dress.

Cursing his luck as he caught up to Rachel, Roman quickly saw by the look on her face that there was no way she'd be dissuaded after his inadvertent dare. He had to admit, he was proud that his daughter was facing this new challenge, going somewhere she knew could scare her, but why did she have to pick a place that scared him too? He'd have to do some quick thinking and some even faster talking in order to keep his vow of never entering a maze again. "Why don't you go with your uncles, and I'll wait for you at the end?"

He watched her small, innocent face contort in confusion and disapproval. "But I want to go with you Daddy..."

"I know baby doll, but if I go with you, who's going to make sure it's safe for you on the other side?"

Though obviously less than thrilled with his answer, she considered it.

"Come on Rachel, let's go through. We'll see your dad on the other side okay?" Seth asked. Roman caught Seth's eye, trying to express his overwhelming gratitude with a single glace for the only man who knew his secret fear. Seth gave him a quick nod before taking Rachel's hand in his own and, with Dean in tow, turned to enter the maze.

Roman sighed in relief. Disaster averted thanks to Seth. Roman was Superman in his daughter's eyes, and he wasn't ready to give that status up quiet yet. Sure, when she grew up, she'd learn her old man had his flaws, but for now, he thoroughly enjoyed playing the part of invincible dad.

* * *

Breathing more easily now, Roman skirted the maze, keeping a healthy distance as he made his way towards its exit. Nearly there, his heart seized up when he heard a high pitched shout of terror. "Daddy!" Rachel cried from the maze.

Rushing the final few feet to the maze's exit, Roman stood staring into the blackness of its doorway. Quickly talking himself into breaking his vow and plunging headfirst into the darkness, Roman took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he began to march into the maze, his whole body tight and on high alert. _Gotta save Rachel, gotta save Rachel_, he kept thinking to himself over and over again while forcing one foot in front of the other.

A few steps over the threshold and he found himself suddenly flat on the ground. Seth rose quickly into view, dusted off the dirt from his hands, and helped a stunned Roman up. Each man rubbed the spot where their heads had collided.

"Seth?"

"Come on Rome. I know you hate these things, but Rachel needs you right now," Seth said in a breathless voice. Roman swallowed his fear and nodded. If Rachel saw him as Superman, it was time he started acting more like him. Taking a steadying breath, Roman began his march into the maze once more, silently thankful for his friend's steadying hand on his shoulder as they entered.

"What happened?" Roman asked, raising his voice over the synthesized Halloween music blasting through the maze.

"I don't know. She was doing great and the monsters were leaving her alone, then a guy in a clown outfit popped out and screamed at her."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. She had Dean's leg in a death grip when I left. She refuses to move until 'her Daddy comes and saves her,'" Seth finished, quoting the little girl.

The deeper they got into the maze, and the more monsters jumped out in front of them, the tighter Roman's muscles coiled, his body commanded him to get out as soon as possible, but his mind refused to obey without his daughter safely cradled in his arms at the exit.

"It's not much further," Seth said as he gave a gentle squeeze to Roman's shoulder, "they should be right around the corn–"

Roman had expected to encounter a lot of things in the maze: spiders, clowns, skeletons, but what he hadn't expected was to trip over a body lying limply across the maze's path. For a second time in the span of minutes, Roman found himself on the ground once more, though this time, he was quickly yanked to his feet by a concerned Dean who turned to help Seth next once Roman was upright. If the situation would have been any different, Roman would have laughed at how tightly his daughter clung to Dean's leg, even as the Lunatic Fringe helped his brothers to the their feet.

"Daddy! You came!" Rachel cried out in pure relief once Roman had his legs back under him. Detaching from Dean, Rachel threw herself at Roman who caught her light frame with ease. "It's okay princess, I'm here now."

"I wanna go home." she said with teary eyes.

"Me too," Roman agreed.

Without waiting for instructions, Dean took the point position for the group, threatening any monster, be it zombie, Dracula or witch, with an unforgettable butt whooping if they came within five feet of Roman and Rachel. Seth took up the position in the back, making sure no costumed punk kids tried to sneak up behind them for a cheap scare.

Once safely out, Roman had to resist the urge to fall on the ground and smother it with kisses as he finally reemerged into the cold October air, the carnival around him oblivious to the life and death struggle he had just gone through..._okay_, he thought, _maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration..._

* * *

"You okay Rome?" Seth asked under his breath as the trio watched Dean shadowbox the monsters, eliciting Rachel's giggles on the way to the car. Now that she was safe in Roman's arms and on her way home, her bravery was slowly resurfacing once more. Roman simply nodded, not trusting his voice quiet yet. Wanting to change the subject, Seth turned a curious glance to Dean.

"I've got a question Ambrose," Seth said.

"What else is new?" Ambrose replied without missing a beat in his fight with an invisible foe.

Ignoring the goad, Seth continued, "What happened to that clown on the ground? He wasn't there when I left to get Roman."

"I warned him," Dean said.

Roman felt Rachel's hair tickle his cheek as she eagerly nodded her agreement. "He did," she said.

"What does that mean, you warned him?" Seth asked.

"I told him to stay away from the kid or I was going to knock him out. You saw how well he listened," Dean finished with a shrug.

Rachel smiled a radiant smile as she adjusted herself in Roman's arms so she could see his face, "Uncle Dean saved me from that mean clown Daddy!"

"Hey, what am I, chopped liver?" Seth asked, feigning hurt.

"What's that?" Rachel asked curiously, causing all three men to laugh.


End file.
